Thousands of lives were lost, millions of belongings were gone and it seems that the world of Iliganons stopped when Sendong came. “This is just a nightmare, slap me and bring me back to reality”, I wish that incident was as simple as this but I’m afraid it’s not. It was more disastrous compared to the war we experienced in our hometown. It was as tragic as a lion devouring a puppy or a spider washed away by the rain. Taking a glimpse of what had happened; I came into a reflection point where I tend to ask myself what was Sendong for? For me, Sendong is a call for change, unity and submission.
Sendong calls each of us to change for the better. There’s a need for changing our ways of living, to set aside our earthly priorities and to put caring for nature a top of everything. Letting go of the things we valued the most where we invested our money and time is very hard but Sendong taught us a lesson that material things can’t save us. It showed to us that in a wink of an eye we can lose everything we have if we continue to be deaf for this call. Let’s plant trees again, stop illegal logging, and be responsible of our wastes. Doing these simple things for the Earth would not starve us but it will surely keep us away from danger. Sendong wants us to be aware of our mistake and to learn from it. It challenged us stand up after the pain and be more responsible so that the pain won’t happen again.
Battling in this competitive world occupies most of the individual’s minds now a day. Meeting the deadlines for work, school and business eats our daily time and it scattered us all into different paths individually. This is Sendong wants to mend. It calls us to be united again in the name of community service and environmental works. It reminded us that we belong in a society and we cannot live alone. The loss of our neighbors is our loss too, helping one another is the best thing that we should do. Blaming one another would do us no good but instead we must join our hands together in moving on in our lives. To be one for nature is the solution of this problem, taking each of our individual responsibilities would eventually keep us away from destruction if another Sendong might come again.
It is sad to reflect on the reality that many lives were lost but looking it positively, it is part of our painful sharpening to become better and responsible individuals. Sendong calls us to submission to God. We alienate ourselves to Him for quite a long time. This is the time for us to repent and led ourselves back to Him. God doesn’t want to punish us but He probably made that to awaken each of us and remind us that we belong to Him not to the world. Prayers can move mountains and can even stop the storm and hold the flood, with God in our lives we will be safe and faith can make everything possible. Sendong serves as a light to some who were wandering in the wilderness back to God.
A month had passed, this is to remind us that the days of the world continue to roll, we must move on. Let us put in us what Sendong calls for. It happened for us to change, be united and we must submit ourselves to God. Taking Sendong’s challenge through nursing Mother Earth back to health in our priority list is the best way we can do to be safe in our Earth.
